Osun: APC, PDP trade words over delay of workers Salaries
…You have run the State aground — APC tells Adeleke
…APC is financially illiterate — PDP
By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have traded words over delay in the payment of workers salaries in the State.
The main opposition party, APC, in a statement by the Acting Chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, faulted Governor Ademola Adeleke over his reason for the administration’s inability to pay the March salaries of the government workers in the State as and when due.
Lawal described the reason for the delay in the payment of the March salaries as flimsy, untenable, sleazy and skanky which he said was skillfully fabricated by the Governor and his co-travellers to deceive the unsuspecting government workers in the state.
He alleged that Adeleke is only trying to be clever by half with his flimsy reasons, saying the Governor has failed in one of his campaign promises to be paying the State workers their salaries latest on the 26th of each month.
Lawal, who noted that Oyetola also paid promotion arrears he inherited, questioned how many of such salaries has Adeleke paid that his government has ceased breathing midway like a proverbial smoke?
He said that it is not unlikely that Adeleke, “with his ill-mannered and planless administration, might have run the state aground within the spate of four months as he has been spending the inherited state funds without recourse to accountability and probity.”
According to him, “A gentleman’s bond is his words. It would be recalled that Adeleke promised heaven and heart during the governorship campaign that he would never exceed 26th of the month before he pays the workers.
“The reality on the ground now is that Adeleke has blown on frivolities all the funds that he inherited from his predecessor and those that accrued to his government to the extent that he cannot pay the salaries of the workers again as and when due.
“Adeleke is stylishly awaiting March federal allocation from Abuja before he could accomplish his governmental obligations with reference to the payment of the workers’ salaries.
“Lawal queried the nexus between the payment of promotion arrears of staff and payment of the staff salaries which is a statutory monthly obligation of any government?
“Adeleke should give kudos to Oyetola for his relentlessness in the prompt payment of the state workers’ full salaries uninterruptedly for four solid years as and when due even before the Federal Allocation came in.
“The prevailing precarious financial situation in the state which is culminating into the inability of Adeleke to continue to pay the workers is enough to come to terms with the fact that the head of an elephant is not a load that can be carried by a young person.
“Why would the entire retirees and some of the civil servants who are not beneficiaries of the promotion be made to suffer the delay in the payment of salaries of March under the minimalist administration of Adeleke?
“This development points to the fact that Adeleke lacks the wherewithal to successfully run the administration of Osun State which is manifesting through his continuous emotional unplanned mode of governance.”
Reacting, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in Osun State lambasted the APC over its reaction on delay workers salaries, describing APC as financial illiterate.
The State Caretaker Chairman, Osun State PDP, Adekunle Akindele, in a statement, said Adeleke is a leader who has kept every promise he made to the people of Osun State.
The statement reads: “Widely named a talk and do, Governor Adeleke’s popularity has moved from 70 per cent to over 90 per cent in the last three months.
“His job approval rating is beyond 80 per cent. APC rating is below 10 per cent, as evidenced by recent surveys and outcome of recent elections.
“Osun State workers understand the imperative of the delay from last week as it was meant to serve their interest to ensure payment of their long-awaited promotion arrears, which the last APC government denied them. They know they will soon start receiving alerts from Monday.
“Workers across the sector are appreciative of Governor Ademola Adeleke’s innovative and shrewd handling of state’s finance, which addresses the basic needs of the people and attends to the critical infrastructural needs of the state.
“After failing for four years to pay the promotion arrears, contributory pensions and the half salary of workers in Osun state, the APC is shamed by the sterling records of Adeleke’s administration which include clearing all the messy legacy of the previous government. This explains its unfounded vituperations and false alarm on Osun finance.
“I want to assure the shameless APC leadership that the Adeleke administration is managing Osun resources very judiciously with the best interest of the people at heart. PDP Government is not a sadist led government of Gboyega Oyetola, which thrived in human wickedness and man’s inhumanity to man.
“The PDP government met a state already run aground by the APC but is now with ingenuity taking the state out of doldrums by focusing on human development, revival of abandoned infrastructure and delivery of urgent social services like water and health services.
“Osun APC peopled by men and women of wicked characters boldly rejected by the people of Osun state should apologise to Osun people for the years of locust it foisted on the state and learn lessons of good governance from a Governor who had done more for the people under three months than the four years of Oyetola in power.”
